


reindeer games

by mollivanders



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Gen, Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-26
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 11:24:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/609297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Audrey stops scanning the tree line long enough to check on Duke’s progress in cutting down a tree  only to dissolve into laughter. His head rustles in the leaves near the base, protesting.</p>
<p>“Have you ever done this before?” Audrey asks, muffling her giggles with her gloves. They’re bright red and have tiny snowflakes on them and Duke had given them to her this morning.</p>
<p>The man in question looks up, torn between exasperation and stubbornness. “It’s a tree, Audrey. It has a trunk. I have a saw. How complicated could this be?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	reindeer games

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stainofmylove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stainofmylove/gifts).



> **Title: reindeer games**  
>  Fandom: Haven  
> Rating: G  
> Characters: Audrey/Duke  
> Author's Note: Word Count - 584. Written for stainofmylove who requested _Audrey and Duke (illegally) cutting down a tree and taking it home_ at my Winter Wonderland 2012. Established relationship. I wrote fluff, which might be a shock to some people. No S3 finale spoilers whatsoever; I ignore canon post 3x05.  
>  Disclaimer: Haven does not belong to me.

Audrey stops scanning the tree line long enough to check on Duke’s progress in cutting down a tree only to dissolve into laughter. His head rustles in the leaves near the base, protesting.

“Have you ever done this before?” Audrey asks, muffling her giggles with her gloves. They’re bright red and have tiny snowflakes on them and Duke had given them to her this morning.

The man in question looks up, torn between exasperation and stubbornness. “It’s a tree, Audrey. It has a trunk. I have a saw. How complicated could this be?”

“Pretty complicated, judging by the evidence,” she retorts, smirking as he tries to find purchase in the snow. As he pulls the saw back and forth again, grumbling quietly at the tree, Audrey tilts her head.

Yes, the view is very nice from here.

“I don’t see why you couldn’t just buy one,” he says, taking a step back to evaluate his progress and wipe his forehead. “Or get a permit. Or arrest it.”

“Exactly, I’m a cop,” she replies, leaning back against a cedar. “Cop’s salary. Cop…restrictions. And it’s not exactly a big tree. Maybe I’ll replant it after Christmas or something.”

“Don’t they teach you cops about agriculture?” he asks, rolling his eyes at her. “And the evidence is not going in front of the Gull, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Hurry up,” she interrupts, smirking at him. “Wouldn’t want me to call the police on you or anything.”

It is a rather small tree, but Audrey’s hardly one to complain. Once Duke finally ( _finally_ , he protests, _it took me an hour, tops_ ) gets the tree down she helps him drag it back to his truck and they cover it with an unsuspicious tarp. She’s pretty sure there’s a stray branch hanging out from under it like an incriminating dead arm or something.

“Have you thought about how you’re getting this upstairs?” he asks as they pull into the parking lot and Audrey shrugs. “The stairs, like normal?” she says before Duke shrugs. “Your funeral,” he says.

(It is perhaps because of this that he concedes and helps her carry it up, but from inside the Gull.)

He knocks on her door three hours later and she barely hears him over the cheerful Christmas music blaring from the radio. Nobody else remembers the Christmas in July but at least she already had all her decorations, so she’s just putting the last touches on the tree when he shows up.

“I have to say, I’m impressed,” he says, though she’s more interested in whatever wrapped item he’s carrying. “Is that for me?” she squeals, feeling ten years old again (as if she’s ever been ten) and grinning at Duke’s long-suffering smile as he hands it over. “But you already got me something!”

“Gloves. Those were necessary,” he says nonchalantly, handing it over. “Don’t drink it all at once,” he warns. Audrey shoots him a look. “What, you’re going to let me drink it alone?”

He takes one look around her flat, as though he expected someone else to be there, before he pulls his jacket off and acquiesces. “Decorate much?” he asks.

(It would be too much to explain.)

“Here, make yourself useful,” she says, passing him the star. He could say he already has – he did cut down the tree for her, but –

The whiskey falls neatly into two glasses and no more.

(It is not because of this, but everything else, that she lets him stay the night.)

_Finis_


End file.
